Long Non-Coding RNA-ROR Mediates the Reprogramming in Cardiac Hypertrophy

BACKGROUND: Cardiac hypertrophy associated with various cardiovascular diseases results in heart failure and sudden death. A clear understanding of the mechanisms of hypertrophy will benefit the development of novel therapies. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play essential roles in many biological process, however, whether lncRNA-ROR plays functional roles in the reprogramming of cardiomyocyte remains unclear. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we show that lncRNA-ROR plays important roles in the pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy. In hypertrophic heart and cardiomyocytes, the expression of lncRNA-ROR is dramatically increased, downregulation of which attenuates the hypertrophic responses. Furthermore, the expression of lncRNA-ROR negatively correlates with miR-133, whose expression is increased when lncRNA-ROR is knocked down. In line with this, overexpression of miR-133 prevents the elevation of lncRNA-ROR and re-expression of ANP and BNP in cardiomyocytes subject to phenylephrine treatment. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Taken together, our study demonstrates that lncRNA-ROR promotes cardiac hypertrophy via interacting with miR-133, indicating that lncRNA-ROR could be targeted for developing novel antihypertrophic therapeutics.